One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and
preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the
elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do
these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He
answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was
the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” And they discussed it
with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say,
‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the
people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was
a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came
from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what
authority I do these things.”
And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a
vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country
for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the
tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the
vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed.
And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him
shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a
third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of
the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son;
perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they
said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the
inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard
and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to
them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard
to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” But he
looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is
written:
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces,
and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at
that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable
against them, but they feared the people. So they watched him and
sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him
in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and
jurisdiction of the governor. So they asked him, “Teacher, we know
that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly
teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to
Caesar, or not?” But he perceived their craftiness, and said to
them, “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it
have?” They said, “Caesar's.” He said to them, “Then render to
Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are
God's.” And they were not able in the presence of the people to
catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became
silent.
There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a
resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher,
Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but
no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for
his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife,
and died without children. And the second and the third took her,
and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the
woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will
the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.”
And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given
in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that
age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are
given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are
equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the
resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in
the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not
God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Then some
of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they
no longer dared to ask him any question.
But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's
son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?”
And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples,
“Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and
love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the
synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows'
houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the
greater condemnation.”
